A few things I have been reading lately seemed relevant:
Barely Maps
Back in September, I mentioned that Down & Outbound became a Kickstarter supporter for a book project by Peter Gorman entitled Barely Maps. The project is a personal account of the cyclist and graphic designer's 11,000 mile bike trip across the United States and southern Canada. The end result is the gorgeously printed Barely Maps: 100 Minimalist Maps (2019). It's similar to an artbook with dozens of illustrations including a set of Intersections, where Gorman outlines the quirky, weird intersections of select U.S. cities. You can read a complete review of the book on my companion thebookshopper.org blog or visit Gorman's website at barelymaps.com.
Democracy and Public Services (Transportation)
Astra Taylor's book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone (2019) is a multidisciplinary and historical look at the where democracy stands as we the first quarter of the new century. Although you could say things are looking a little bleak for democracy, Taylor reminds us that "democracy begins where you live" including protecting the environment. She writes:
"Ultimately, more than 350 cities announced plans to break with national policy and honor the international accord. No longer advising people to go back to the land, environmentalists increasingly recognize the role cities must play if they hope to achieve sustainability Several earths would be required for everyone to live in a suburban home with a two-car garage, which means dense cities - compact, efficiently designed, and public service rich -- will be crucial to livable low-carbon future. "(Taylor is citing the work of Daniel Adana Cohen.)
And Ending on a Lighter Note
A couple of weeks ago around midnight on a Saturday night, my eye caught a "vehicle" scooting down my street in Decatur (GA). I live on a busy street with lots of traffic and even at that late hour automobiles pass by regularly. The vehicle had no lights or reflectors, but a large, older man was wearing white sweatpants (or pajamas?), a jacket and stocking cap was tootling along one of the lanes. I feared the worse for the scooter rider or an unsuspecting motorist and called the non-emergency police number. The next morning the scooter was abandoned a block away and it turned out it was a motorized shopping cart from a Walmart store which is about 3/4 of a mile from where I live. You cannot underestimate how people like their scooters.
After spending four weeks in Europe using public transportation to get around Venice and several nearby cities, Prague, Berlin and Ljubljana (Slovenia) I pulled together some random thoughts about those experiences that are anecdotal in nature. I begin with Italy and Prague in Part 1 and then move to Berlin and Ljubljana in Part 2.
Venice
When flying into Venice, no matter how tired your are, you immediately awaken to the fact that this is a public transportation network like no other. To get from Marco Polo Airport to the city you must take a water bus and dock at one of many “boat stops” on the way.
There are no cars or trucks in Venice and one must rely entirely on boats and your own two feet. Since hundreds of canal bridges populate the city, there are very few bicycles and e-scooters to contend with on the streets and sidewalks.
What struck me was that every function you expect from a car or a truck was provided via boat whether is was an ambulance boat, a fire fighting boat or a boat hauling goods or garbage. Why these boats didn’t collide was a mystery to me, and it reminded me of all those cyclists in Amsterdam I witnessed a few years ago crisscrossing each other without incident. (And yes, I did do a gondola ride but only for about five minutes just to cross the Grand Canal.)
Treviso, Italy
Treviso, Italy is part of the Veneta and is only 30 miles north of Venice. It serves as a regional rail hub to cities such as Verona, Padua, and Conegliano. Regional trains ran regularly thoughout the day and evening so it is fairly easy make day trips – vineyard tours outside of Conegliano, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and the Colosseum in Verona (shown left to right in the above collage). The train stops at smaller cities on the way, and one must be vigilant because these stations are not always announced. An added benefit is that on the back of your ticket there was a graphic reminding me how train travel was the best mode of transportation for the environment when compared to automobiles and planes.
Treviso is pedestrian-friendly in the center city because access by automobile is limited. Also, it is a fairly flat city with narrow streets and cyclists – sans bike lanes – effortlessly dart in and out among pedestrians (but not recklessly). Based merely on my observations, there were other unwritten rules among the cyclists encapsulated by the snapshot of this older woman who unknowingly embodied the following guidelines:
No Helmets – only children with their parents wore helmets.
No Spandex – cyclists wore their regular daily clothes. Just because many Italians like to dress fashionably did not prevent them from riding bicycles.
No Shame in Walking Your Bicycle – Older riders were not hesitant to dismount and walk his or her bicycle up a hill or in a congested area.
No Age Limit – It was not unusual to see riders in their sixties and seventies riding slowly but effortlessly in the center city.
No Fancy Bikes – These bikes were more functional in nature with front baskets and back baskets and fenders to prevent muddy splashes on those nice clothes.
There is a city bus system in Treviso, but since my traveling partner and trip planner extraordinaire Denise Casey stayed in the center city, we didn’t need to use it. You can walk anywhere in center city in 20 or 30 minutes including the Treviso train station. This short video gives one some sense of the vibe.
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague relies on its electric trams and a major subway with three main lines. Our tour guide remarked that the only thing Soviets did right was build a subway system that commuters could get from the outskirts to the main centers of the city in a few minutes. (It is fifth busiest subway system in Europe in terms of ridership with trains running every two to three minutes at rush hour.) Since we were staying in the nearby Mala Strada, we quickly mastered the tram system, which we used regularly to take us back and forth to the more touristy Old Town and sites such as the Astronomical Clock. I regret not checking out some of the stations in the tunnels, but it was never necessary because the trams were enough for us to get around.
Like the drivers in my hometown of Atlanta-- even though traffic is slowed and not has heavy -- as a pedestrian you had to make eye contact with the motorists even if you were in a crosswalk. I almost got paved into a cobblestone street near the Prague Castle.
There was some cycling and the e-scooters in Prague as well, but I am not sure those e-pests will be widely accepted. I saw a few people riding e-scooters on cobblestone streets and their heads were bobbling so much I thought I saw a few teeth fly out.
At the end of our stay, we took the tram directly to at the Prague train station where we boarded a train for a four-hour trip to Berlin.
Readers of this blog know that when I am walking, electric scooters are not welcome on sidewalks and as a motorist and a fellow human being, I fear being part of or witness to a serious accident involving a scooter on a street. You can call it envy because of my own lack of balance (and thus I am excluded from the Lime club), but when I see a 185 lb. person scooting 15 miles an hour with no helmet in traffic, I shudder, not gaze wistfully. Given the durability of a scooter -- estimated between one and three months -- gives me further anxiety when I see scooters weaving amongst traffic and pedestrians. See this article for details.
Atlanta Journal Constitution Article
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a long feature article in the Sunday, September 1st edition, which covered many of the issues surrounding the use of scooters in Atlanta. I’ve highlighted one excerpt that challenges the much-marketed assumption that scooters replace car trips (they replace walkers as well). Of course, there is a lot of big money pushing these assumptions. Lime is financed by Uber and Google-Alphabet.
Here's a short article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, December 20th written by Bill Banks about the City of Decatur where I live and walk the 10-15 minutes to the train station four days a week for the last 9 years.
Though miffed by the sudden arrival of EScooters in the city last October without prior notification, Decatur commissioners believe the technology is, according to City Manager Peggy Merriss, “consistent with the city’s strategic plan and community transportation plan.”
The scooters, also called “dockless mobility scooters,” “longboards” and “stand up electric scooters” (and less savory designations by those in opposition), are marketed as a convenient solution for short trips. Merriss believes there’s truth here and that potentially the scooters “can get people out of cars and contribute to better air quality.
“I don’t have an issue with them, if used appropriately,” she added. “They are not toys, and there has to be education, enforcement and role modeling.”
On Dec. 17 the commission authorized the city manager (Andrea Arnold will take over for Merriss beginning Jan. 1) to execute an interim operating agreement for using the scooters. This interim agreement has room for flexibility and probably will take another month to finalize. But the eventual goal, Merriss said, is to pass an ordinance by the first quarter of next year.
Some key points the in the interim manifesto include keeping the vehicles on bikes lanes, streets and bike paths while prohibiting their use on sidewalks. Also, the age limit is 18, helmets are mandatory and usage is limited to daylight hours (although this could expand). Each company is limited to 50 scooters within the city, and strict parking regulations apply—currently scooters are often parked in clumps on sidewalks, or occasionally singly and abandoned.
“There are some cities in the state that have banned them,” said Mayor Patti Garrett. “We don’t want to go that route. The big problems are irresponsible drivers, underage drivers, people riding double and, in one case, I heard somebody say, ‘I don’t know how to stop this thing!’
Merriss said she doesn’t have a precise number but guesses there are over 100 scattered throughout Decatur’s four square miles. Most belong to Bird Rides and few to LimeBike. On Wednesday a third company, the “JUMP by Uber” launched scooters in Atlanta.
Though a short article it touches on several related issues about transit:
"First and last mile connectivity" is a transit wonk catch phrase that the scooter industry has used in marketing to convince people that scooters are a remedy for transit woes. (Anecdotally, I have yet to see a commuter ride a scooter to or from an adjacent neighborhood to the Decatur train station.)
The sidewalks, especially on Church street are narrow and broken and underwater when it rains (shown here).Of course automobiles constantly buzzing at 35 miles an hour doesn't improve the walking experience. Plans are for improvement to slow the traffic but that has been promised or proposed for years. (Last word is that easements were being obtained.)
New developments in Decatur including the proposed one called the Quarters on Church Street near Glenlake Park seem to be an antithesis to make Decatur more walkable or sustainable by dumping additional motorists from the proposed 43 unit development onto an already very busy street. Even if the developer puts in a wide sidewalk -- the development connects to nothing but narrow, broken, and flooded sidewalks.
On a larger scale, isn't this development and scooter regulations indirectly a carbon issue? A developer cuts down large mature trees and more traffic is potentially dumped on the roads and more scooters dominate the discussion. This is really climate issue because everything is a climate issue. Below is the headline from the front page of the January 11, 2019 New York Times. Maybe its not as indirect as we have been thinking.
I have become obsessed* about scooters but in an unhealthy way -- like riding 15 mph on a motorized scooter without a helmet on a sidewalk strewn with wet leaves. I really dislike them. I've even written a joke about it: "The only thing that keeps me from clipping the brake cable on every parked scooter I pass, is doing prison time for manslaughter."
Here's the one major irony of scooters. They often are parked on narrow sidewalks blocking the path of pedestrians and can become a nasty obstacle to those on motorized wheelchairs. The irony is that the ramps on curbs that allow motorized wheelchairs to cross the street are the same ramps that allow scooters to use sidewalks. Funny, but nobody's laughing.
When I have to share the already narrow, crumbling sidewalks of Midtown Atlanta with speeding, silent scooters, ridden by well balanced, carefree, young people, I will I admit I have evil thoughts about vandalizing the offending vehicles. And I am not only one, as reported in the August 18, 2018 edition of The Chicago Tribune.
"You could say the scooters have created a buzz — not necessarily the good kind — in select cities. In Cleveland, city officials ordered Bird, another dock less scooter-sharing company, to remove its equipment, citing safety concerns and a lack of city permits that would allow the scooters to be parked on the sidewalk, The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported.
But in cities like Los Angeles, scooters have been set on fire, tossed off balconies and even dumped into the ocean — a backlash that is a melange of anger over so many tech companies popping up in Southern California and anger that they’re clogging up public spaces, according to news reports . That has resulted in cities in California limiting or outright banning the scooter-sharing services, the Los Angeles Times reported."
"Help me, I've fallen," said the scooter, but I stood by and did nothing.